Missionary Myth-Busting

Thank you, Scarlett. This is true and very well said. The cause of world-wide missions is a team effort, start to finish.

About 15 years ago my wife had to fly back to the States for what should have been safe surgery. However, as she recovered a shower of blood clots went into her lungs and she almost died. My son and I immediately flew back to be with her in her home town. Of course the folks in her home church were praying and helping, and were such a blessing. However, this was not the case with another supporting church.

After Patty was well enough to get up and around, we visited another supporting church in the city on a Wednesday night. A couple came up to us, introduced themselves and said, "What are your names?" They didn't recognize us as their missionaries!

We were surprised, since we had sent a letter saying what was happening and asking for prayer. The pastor's wife was in charge of correspondence and had apparently not even read the letter or shared it with anyone. This was very discouraging to missionaries in great need of prayer. Fortunately, though, many others were praying, and we thank God for how He was with us in this crisis.

 

Aw, come on, Roger, help us out here. For example, you have to watch out for IRA gunfights with the Brits every Saturday night, right? And Ireland is a "Christian nation," so everyone there is open to the Gospel, right?

 

This really fits the profile! Funny thing, though, the Japanese man should have been looking around at all of the overweight Americans and thinking, "This girl will fit right in!" But they are a very insular people. Everything begins and ends with Japan. (Not that many Americans are much different about America!)

I remember hearing about a Japanese family who visited the States. In the airport the son looked around and said, "Wow, foreigners everywhere!" His Dad had to tell him, "Son, we're the foreigners here!"

 

Before going on I want to make it clear that I am not Japan-bashing, I am myth-busting. We have many Japanese friends, and there are some things about this society that I admire. After all, they are made in the image of God, and thus capable of doing great things, humanly speaking.

Now to get on with it, the idea that the Japanese education system is a great marvel and should be imitated is false. In the first place, they imitated the US model of many years ago, and that produced a pretty good education system. So if American schools imitate anything it should be the 3 Rs schools of long ago!

It's worth nothing that the first modern schools were started by foreign missionaries in the 19th century, and later Japanese Christians started some. Several well-known colleges were started by missionaries, and one of the most famous colleges in Japan, Doshisha, was started by a Japanese Christian. Another famous Christian educator, Nitobe Inazo, had his picture on the 5000 yen bill for many years.

Having said all of that, the system is broken nowadays, IMO. I have a teacher in my church, my wife teaches English to teachers, and our former co-worker's wife taught English in the school system. From them we have learned of crimes being covered up in the schools, and sexual harassment that occurs. Bullying is very common, and many kids drop out because of it, with some even committing suicide.

Think of this: why do you think the Japanese get such good grades on the international achievement tests? My wife was told that the teachers teach the actual achievement tests to he students before they take it so no one will be embarrassed by bad grades!

The Japanese school system is still a pretty good one. But it's not the best and should not necessarily be imitated.

 

My wife and I were talking about this thread, and she mentioned what we might call the "everywhere the same" myth. So often when we are in the homeland we tell people about something in Japan and they say, "Oh, it's just like that here in America." We suffer in silence, knowing the speaker is probably unconvinceable, but what we want to say is, "NO IT ISN'T. It's different in Japan."

There are many things the same around the world: people are made in the image of God, fallen in sin, they love, they hate, they all need Christ. But cultures and ways of thinking can be very, very different. For example, the Japanese call their society "vertical" and ours "horizontal." Americans believe everone is equal, everyone puts their pants on the same. Japanese reject this thinking, even though they live in a presumed democracy. Their society is based on Confucianism--this is where ancestor worship comes from. And they actually historically have had pretty much of a caste system. But it is very hard to convince someone of this who has never lived outside of America!

Our American politicians and bureaucrats do this all the time too. "The terrorists resent America because of our colonialism, because we mistreated them, or because they are poor." What baloney! They hate us because their religion and society teach them to.

Folks, next time you talk to a missionary home on furlough, and he tells you about the country he ministers in, don't say, "It's just like that here." Ask questions, try to understand.

 

Sounds like you're having a great conference. 20 missionaries--praise the Lord!

Yep, those stories. I've sat in a hot springs bath in the altogether with a Japanese pastor my own self--outdoors! But you are supposed to use the towel for modesty.

After we came to Japan someone told us (or maybe I read somewhere) that it takes 10 years to really understand an Asian culture. After about ten years, sure enough, Patty and I told each other, "We think we have this place figured out!" But we're still learning and leaning.

 

Boy, I wish we were at your conference! :jesus:

 

A variation of the "everything the same" myth is the idea that winning souls to Christ is the same in all cultures and countries. I once heard a well-known pastor of an American megachurch preach against excuses for not winning souls, "You say, 'I've got a hard field.' Well Jesus had a hard field. We've all got a hard field." The idea was that a person was lazy if they didn't win just as many to Christ as the next person.

Unfortunately, I came to Japan from that Christian subculture with that very idea, that a missionary was being lazy if he didn't see just as many souls saved on the field as in the homeland. I remember figuring that Jesus had twelve solid disciples by the time three years was done, so I figured I could too, and would have a church planted in three years. I soon learned that Japan is much, much harder than that, and I went into a depression. If a doctor had seen me he might have called it a clinical depression and given me medicine!

What rescued me and my ministry? One day in devotions I read in Matt. 13:58, "And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." I realized then that there were some places that resisted even Jesus--there are truly some fields that are harder than others! Missiologists call a field like Japan, "Gospel-resistant." My job is to obey and faithfully proclaim the Gospel, not seek "success."

It even seems to be getting harder. The last response I had to a tract was way last year after a man left a message on the church answering machine, "Your leaflet made me uncomfortable. Don't do it again." I was elated--someone had actually responded! Maybe they'd get mad enough to come to church and ball me out!

This is very hard to convey to most people in the homeland, though. After I've said, "We passed out ten thousand tracts and got no response whatsoever," I've had folks back home say, "Yeah, it's getting harder here." Or they'll say, "But the nationals do far better at it, don't they." (Actually, they don't. My Japanese pastor friends are having just as hard a time as we are. They tell us it's easier for a foreign missionary!) That lack of understanding can be very frustrating. But God understands, and people who have actually visited Japan understand. And that's enough for me. :type:

 

I know what you mean. It's especially hard when you get those questionnaires from the churches saying, "How many in each service?" or "How many did you baptize last year?" It's hard to say, one baptized last year and none yet this year. Fortunately, God understands.

Amen--well, to everything but the destruction! :smilewinkgrin:

But God does give us encouragement in these Gospel resistant fields, or else we would have quit long ago, amen?

 

Okay, I get it. But just between you and me, I've been frustrated enough at the apathy to the Gospel that I've prayed an imprecatory psalm!